From the author of

Going from an idea to a real company is a critical transitional process from
many perspectives: emotional, operational, and financial. Assuming that angel
investors have chipped in or you have pooled in your own finances to start the
venture, the pieces have to be put in place for the creation of a company. The
key objective in this stage is to demonstrate that you have a viable company and
that your vision has been validated.

Capturing Value

The essence of starting your business will be to demonstrate to other
stakeholders the value that your company offers. These stakeholders could be
your employees, shareholders, suppliers, customers, or even friends and family.
The value is nothing but demonstrating, in no uncertain terms, to these
stakeholders that your idea works.

Good internal communications within the company is an essential ingredient to
success. Everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction to get the job done,
whether it is technology development or marketing initiatives or in-house
chores. Sharing and complementing each other's roles builds teamwork and
ensures attention to critical issues. To do this, you need to be extremely vocal
inside the company and engender the perspective that "Everyone is a
founder." You need to evangelize and energize at every opportunity that
presents itself. Inevitably, there will be some employees who may need to be
prodded and pushed. Constant communication is the key to making people
understand what the company is trying to deliver. It is important to communicate
the upcoming challenges as well as recognize the milestones achieved, both
collectively and individually.

While capturing value is one side of the coin, the other side deals with
understanding how time itself can be a strategic asset in increasing this value.
While you evangelize and communicate the value, your stakeholders will
increasingly look forward to actually see you deliver it. Your competitors will
raise their antennas. You will be under pressure to deliver. This is the stage
when you need to understand the money value of time.

For aggressive environments, time is far more important than money.
Understanding when money can be traded to gain time is important. You should
explore various options that allow you to get to market faster, such as:

Should I develop in-house or should I outsource?

Should I build subsystems and components or buy them?

Can I look at partnering with some of the companies that I consider
competitors?

Reinventing the wheel could result in waste of time, especially if the
components are freely available in the market. The focus should be on delivering
the value your company promises to its stakeholders while keeping in mind that
the cheapest options may not necessarily be the best options for you. Getting to
market early with outsourced modules may be more important than getting in late
with a completely in-house solution.